Enter your last name in our Popularity Index database, and see its rank among the most common names in the United States, according to 1990 and 2000 U.S. Census data — the two years for which this data is available.
Data Source: U.S. Census Bureau. In 1995, the Census Bureau published a list of surnames occurring 100 times or more from the 1990 decimal census. The 1990 list contains 88,799 names. When the Bureau published the list following the 2000 census, the list contained 151,671 names. The next U.S. Census takes place in 2010.
What about me? According to the 2000 data, though the entire list of 151,671 surnames covers about 90 percent of the population, it accounts for only about 3 percent of surnames in the United States! The 2000 census found over 6 million surnames total, the vast majority (about 65%) held by just one person. So don't be discouraged if you're not on the list. Ninety-seven percent of all surnames in the United States didn't make the list.
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